E21: Pittsburgh's Safe Haven Support Community for Foster Children

What makes Kelly Hughes with Foster Love Project a good neighbor?  

Every child deserves dignity, especially those facing the trauma of foster care. Kelly Hughes, founder of Foster Love Project, transforms this belief into action every day for children across the Pittsburgh region.

Kelly's journey began in 2013 when she and her husband became foster parents. After welcoming eight children into their home, they identified critical gaps in support that inspired the creation of Foster Love Project. Now celebrating ten years of service, this grassroots organization has grown into a vital community resource serving approximately 1,000 children annually.

What makes Foster Love Project special is their compassionate problem-solving approach. Kelly challenges the all-too-common narrative of vilifying biological families whose children enter foster care. "There is a lot of vitriol and disparaging families whose kids enter foster care," she explains. Instead, she recognizes the profound trauma experienced by both children and parents during separation and advocates for providing support to keep families together whenever safely possible.

The organization's free shopping center allows foster children to select clothing, shoes, toiletries, books, and bedding—providing essential items with dignity and choice. Their back-to-school program equips 250 children with backpacks, school supplies, new shoes, and sweatshirts, ensuring they start the academic year confident and prepared.

Even during the pandemic, when facing facility closure and service disruptions, Kelly's team pivoted to curbside appointments and secured a new location three times larger than before. This remarkable resilience speaks volumes about their commitment to ensuring no child feels forgotten in the system.

Want to make a difference? Foster Love Project welcomes volunteers, financial donations, and contributions through their Amazon wishlist. Visit fosterloveproject.org or find them on social media to join this powerful community supporting our most vulnerable neighbors. Together, we can ensure every child knows they are seen, valued, and worthy of love.

To learn more about Foster Love Project go to: 

https://www.fosterloveproject.org/

Foster Love Project

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a fostersupport community?
One might be closer than youthink.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
kelly Hughes, with Foster LoveProject.
Kelly, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's going well, Lila .
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thanks for being here .
We're excited to learn allabout you and your organization,
so tell us about your company.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, I have a nonprofit called Foster Love
Project that started to providesupport to kids in foster care
in the Pittsburgh region.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Excellent.
So how'd you get into thisbusiness?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
My husband and I became foster parents in 2013.
And through that process we'vehad eight children that have
come through our home atdifferent times and feeling like
there were some gaps in support.
That we experienced and lookingfor ways that we could provide
more community and support andresources to other families is

(01:16):
what led me to take just someinitial steps to providing goods
and services of support andthen just the community started
really rallying behind what wewere doing and through that
we've been able to beestablished now for 10 years.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So what are some myths or misconceptions in your
industry?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
I think there is a lot of vitriol and disparaging
families whose kids enter fostercare, and we hear a lot of
people talking badly and downabout the biological families
who have found themselves inthese crises where their
children have been able to beremoved.

(01:59):
So I feel very passionate aboutlooking at the whole wellness
of the family and seeing wherewe can provide continuing
supports for families who areexperiencing their children lost
to the foster care system,because we know that separation
of these families causes somevery deep trauma for both the

(02:21):
parents and the kids deep traumafor both the parents and the
kids and so when we can see howwe can provide supports that we
can keep the kids with theirfamily whenever safely possible,
I think is a really importantaspect that we want to
continually support.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, you seem like a real problem solver.
You know you saw the concernwithin the system and then you
took that extra step to go aheadand try and address where
you're seeing trauma issues.
Who are your target customersand how do you attract them to
Foster Love Project?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
We partner with Children, youth and Families in
our region and they are a bigpartner and supporter for us, so
they ensure that they'resending kids that are in the
foster care system to our doorsand making sure they know about
the resources that we provide.
We partner with all of thefoster care agencies in our

(03:15):
region, try to continually makesure they're aware of us and the
supports that we can provide,and then you know word of mouth.
A lot of foster families knowabout us and then they tell
their friends who are fosterfamilies.
We also use our platforms onsocial media to spread as much
awareness as possible.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast to
reach these people?

Speaker 3 (03:40):
I have.
It's sometimes mostly acapacity issue of you know
seeing how much capacity we haveto add something like that, but
I do think that is a reallyimportant platform where we can
continually spread the wordabout the needs of kids in
foster care.
So, outside of work.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, I have four teenagers and so I do a lot of
chauffeuring.
They are very busy.
We're always, you know, makingsure they need to be where they
have to be, but so we spend alot of times in gyms and sports
fields and they do music things.
But I love being outside.

(04:23):
I walk a lot, play tennis bike,really enjoy just being outside
and kind of grounding myself innature whenever possible.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Very good.
So let's switch gears here.
Can you describe a hardship ora life challenge that you
overcame and how it made youstrong?

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, if I think in terms of Foster Love Project.
You know, going through thepandemic was a real challenge
for all businesses.
So we have a free shoppingcenter that we have for kids in
foster care, where they shop forclothes and shoes, toiletries,
books, bedding, a variety ofgoods, and so when things began

(05:09):
to shut down, we had that bigchallenge of how do we
continually ensure that our kidsin our community are still
getting the resources andsupport they need, and, at the
same time, the facility that wewere renting was closing off to
us.
The landlord needed it foranother purpose, and so we were

(05:30):
facing needing a new facility aswell as trying to pivot in how
we can still get the goods andservices to kids in our
community, and so we reallyworked hard that year of 2020 in
finding a new facility andpivoting to curbside

(05:51):
appointments, and our team hereat Foster Law Project just did
an incredible job at rising tothe challenges and meeting them.
It was a very difficult andchallenging few years, but I'm
so grateful to say that now wehave a facility that is three
times the size of our previousfacility and really meets our
needs in an even better way, andwe've been able to expand the

(06:14):
number of shopping appointments.
We have about a thousand kidsthat come and shop every year
and we're continually growingall of our programs, and so I'm
really proud of our team for howthey've met the challenges and
just continued to provide theimpact and support to the kids
that needed us.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
That's remarkable how you kind of adjust the sales in
the moment whenever we're allimpacted by COVID at the same
time, and able to implementthings like the curbside
assistance to still get to thosepeople that you needed to help.
So I think that's beautifulVery well done.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
You're welcome.
So, kelly, please tell ourlisteners one thing that they
should remember about FosterLove Project.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
There are kids in crisis in our community that are
hurting every day and we can'tchange their circumstances and
we can't change, maybe, whattheir family is facing.
But we can say that we see you,you are not forgotten, you are
not a number in a system and wecan come along and we can
provide these supports to youand just try to help you as you

(07:21):
walk through these differentcrises that your family might be
facing.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, I got chills whenever you said that.
I think a lot of people reallyneeded to hear that.
How can our listeners learnmore about Foster Support
Community?

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Our website, fosterloveprojectorg, will give
you an overview of all of ourprograms.
We're also on Facebook andInstagram.
At Foster Love Project, wealways continually have a need
for goods on our shelf.
We have Amazon lists that youcan purchase items right off

(07:56):
that list and have them shippedright to our door.
We're amping up for our annualback to school program in August
, so we'll have 250 kids thatcome through.
They get to pick backpack andschool supplies, but they also
get a brand new pair of shoesand a sweatshirt, as we feel
that's part of the back toschool package, of going back to

(08:17):
school with dignity, and so wetake volunteers for that event.
We take people supporting thepurchase of shoes and hoodies
and backpacks and schoolsupplies so you can volunteer,
you can donate financially, youcan also purchase items off our
wish list and takes a lot ofarms linking together to ensure

(08:39):
that we're ensuring that thekids have everything they need
to go back to school.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Well, Kelly, I really appreciate your time today and
having you as a guest on ourshow.
We wish you and Foster LoveProject the best moving forward.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to
share about this vital need inour community.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNP Pittsburghdot com.
That's GNP Pittsburgh.
Pittsburghcom.
That's gnp pittsburghcom, orcall 412-561-9956.